Man With 57 Arrests Will Reportedly Avoid Prison For Vicious Pipe Attack

(Screenshot/Heartland Signal)

A repeat offender who injured and disfigured a stranger’s head with a pipe will not serve any jail time under Illinois policy, CWBChicago reported Sunday.

Piere Thorne, who has been arrested 57 times, struck the 53-year-old victim from behind with the metal object in a random assault in December 2022, the outlet reported, citing court documents. Democratic Judge Joanne Rosado reportedly sentenced Thorne to four years in prison through a plea deal, but he received credit for 752 days spent in custody and a 50% sentence reduction, meaning he will not spend further time behind bars.

The Daily Caller News Foundation could not identify an attorney for Thorne.

Thorne’s victim suffered loss of multiple teeth, injuries to the nose, cuts on his chin and scalp, an abrasion to his eye and face and jaw fractures, prosecutors reportedly said. His face is permanently disfigured even after surgery. He quickly fell to the ground after being struck, injuring his face and bleeding from the back of the head.

“I was just outside my office on Clark and Madison,” a witness told CWBChicago shortly after the assault. “Guy comes from behind and hits a man in the head with a sledgehammer and walks down the middle of the road like nothing happened.”

Police released footage of Thorne walking in a hoodie to seek the public’s help in identifying him in January 2023, eventually catching him the following November, police records show.

Thorne has prior misdemeanor convictions that include similarly random attacks downtown, according to CWBChicago. He reportedly pleaded guilty in the pipe attack to aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, a felony. Another felony charge of aggravated battery in a public place was dropped.

Illinois’ lenient criminal justice policies came under national scrutiny in November after a man with more than 70 arrests was charged with burning a woman on a train, prompting the Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring federal charges, the DCNF previously reported. The defendant had been released from jail in a prior assault case under Democratic Illinois Gov. Pritzker’s Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, which he said he is open to reevaluating in light of the train attack.